[BluesJam]

How well are DiMarzio’s potted with wax?  Are they dipped like traditional methods or by vacuum methods?  Are there methods to remove wax from pickups?  I read that pickups that are unpotted may sound better.  I was not sure if it was possible.  I also read the Leo Fender dipped his pickups in lacquer.  I was thinking of unpotting a DiMarzio single coil.

[HarlowTheFish]

Unpotting a pickup that's been potted with wax is pretty easy to do with a hair dryer, it just takes forever - took me 40+ minutes for a pretty crappy job on a humbucker. Potting with lacquer or shellac is very much a thing, some of the newer Fender pickups (on the new Player series IIRC) are shellac potted, and it's a bit less "potted"-sounding than wax because it's not as solid a material.

My $0.02, if you want unpotted pickups order them that way from the factory, because it's just not worth the trouble. A lot of pickups have been designed with potting in mind and they're unbearably microphonic with the potting removed.

[RayBarbeeMusic]

The bs about unpotted is just that.  I'm old enough to remember when factory potting didn't happen.  We did NOT consider tendency to squeal to be a 'feature', and learned to pot our own. 

Even some 'unpotted' pickups ARE lightly potted (I'm looking at you gibson custom bucker!). 

Do my throbaks sound good?  Yes.  Do they sound better than some other pafs I have that are potted?  No, just different.  Do lollar imperials or fralin pafs or bkp mules or 36ths sound worse because they are potted?  F no.

Don't waste your time.

[darkbluemurder]

We did NOT consider tendency to squeal to be a 'feature', and learned to pot our own. 

Exactly. My first encounter with this were some dubious 70s strat pickups which sounded good but squealed like hell - absolutely unuseable with any amount of gain. So I potted them so I could use them with gain. If there was any tonal difference I gladly took that in return for the increased applicability.

Cheers Stephan

[Schneidas]

Unpotted pickups!!

Trust me, I tried a few of the Bareknuckle Pickups unpotted - the squeal you get is unbearable... I sent them back after two days of trying and now I request potted pickups only.
There is almost no audible difference (and I say "almost", because guys like Eric Johnson will hear a difference - the rest of us won't!).
if you play with "any" sort of gain - don't even go there.... you'll be in *a lot* of trouble!
I'd never go for unpotted pickups again in my lifetime.

[BluesJam]

Wow...lots of sound advice.  I guess de-waxing may not be worth it.  I’d probably ruin the pickup for a very limited audio difference.👊🏻